Oliver was only moments down stream when water began sloshing around inside his hazard suit, reminding him of the damage it had taken... As well as the damage to his backside. In his adrenaline fueled flight, he had suppressed all thoughts of the wound and somehow managed to completely ignore the pain of it.
But, with his mind no longer dominated by his escape, he was finding it hard to ignore. Only Lita physically plugging the wound had prevented much unnecessary blood loss... Not that the armor would complain, as it seemed to enjoy the bit of excess blood it was absorbing. Thankfully, the semi-sentient armor was aware enough that it didn't take too much...
So caught up in the moment, it took Oliver several seconds to remember that he had acquired a healing spell specifically for situations like this.
Lesser Rejuvenation: Infuses the target with a seed of life attuned mana. This seed pulses a small amount of healing energy throughout the target every two seconds for ten second, mending wounds, promoting increased production of blood, and attempting to knit broken bones back together. Mana cost=20 (Caution: This spell only functions as described on living, organic targets. Life attuned mana conflicts with necrotic mana. If used on an Undead target, this spell will instead cause damage.)
He was a bit annoyed at the lack of details about how much it would actually heal him... Though the helpful little note at the end was something to consider later. Not that it was much of a surprise. In many games, healing spells had the opposite effect on undead.
Definitely something he would keep in mind for later.
With a quick check that no soldiers were approaching the section of river he floated down, Oliver quickly channeled the spell into himself... And couldn't help but note how similar, yet different, it was from his other spells.
When channeling the mana for Fireball... it felt warm, almost like a camp fire, and seemed to crackle and pop as it traveled through his body. Blood Aura seemed to pulse through his body like a heartbeat, even as it brought the smell of copper. It felt similar to Lesser Rejuvenation, in that its base was that Life, yet also different... It was spilled blood and life ended.
Lesser Rejuvenation... was like the cry of a new born baby and the scent of fresh grass. It was the gentle beat of his heart, letting him know he was alive.
It was life made manifest.
He knew that these sensations weren't really a part of the spell, more just his mind's way of interpreting them. But even as the healing energy pulsed through his body, that was how he thought of them... Though, it was also strange. He didn't get sensations like this from manifesting the Psi Blade. Were Psi abilities different? Or did he simply perceive them differently?
The sudden tangent his mind had latched on to was pushed away by the feeling of his flesh knitting back together. Each pulses of energy felt like weeks of his body healing normally as the wound closed before his eyes- he could only watch the process thanks to a small mirror he kept in the warehouse, due to its location... Though Lita was reluctant to abandon her meal in favor of his curiosity.
He still knew so little about the strange armor...
Checking his mana reserves once the wound had fully closed, Oliver grimaces slightly. Down to half mana, but with most of his pis remaining... Considering the circumstances, it wasn't bad. But considering his plans... It was less than he would like.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Though, unless a group of the soldiers happened to stumble upon him, he would have a few hours for his resources to regenerate. And a chance to calculate his mana regeneration...
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“Sixty-three mana over three hours... So, twenty-one an hour. That's... an odd number.” Oliver muttered to himself as he crouched behind a rocky outcropping, waiting for the sun to set. “My bet is that Spirit dictates mana regen... And that extra one is from the Ring of Mana Regeneration... Least. I wonder how they determine the 'Least' designation... Is it a flat one per hour, or is it a five percent increase?”
“Not that I'll be able to figure it out by talking to myself...” He grumbled as he watched the soldiers troop back up the ramp after their fruitless search. Moments later, the remaining planes streamed into the base and out of Oliver's sight- he could imagine them setting down, one by one, on the landing strip he had spied through his binoculars earlier.
“Ok, focus up Oli. Getting back at these assholes is only a minor goal, right? You gotta find some way to contact Omi so they can come pick you up... And some way to keep this assholes from attacking the shuttle again. Don't want to go through another surprise sky diving lesson...”
“Grabbing some good loot... is also a minor goal. But a fun one.” He whispered, wolfish grin in place, as he crept out from behind the rocks.
His approach was simple... and complicated. Oliver knew he couldn't use the ramp, as the soldiers had set a watch at the top. At either side of the cavernous opening stood pairs of sentries, with another pair patrolling between them and flood lights shining down the ramp.
No way was he just going to walk into that.
Of course, he could always go search for the backdoor, as any base should have... But he doubted that it would be any less secure. If anything, it was likely to be smaller and even more secure.
And, with the walls near the opening having been smoothed down at some point- likely to prevent ambitious climbers from just skirting above the sentries- he knew he had to take a more... unorthodox approach.
One that was substantially more difficult, but less likely to be noticed. Or thought much of.
Skirting around the smoothed side of the mountain, it was easy enough to scale a different part of it- not much more challenging than the climbing wall he had tried on campus when he was still in school, though he imagined his increased attributes had something to do with that... Just as he imagined they came into play when, an hour later, he set foot on top of the overhang without even feeling winded. It had taken going a bit further out of the way than he wanted, as the mountain side had been smoothed further up than he thought, but step one was done.
Now came the crazy part... Though Oliver thought it a bit less crazy than it could be, thanks mostly to his new familiar: Henrietta.
Bind familiar, it turned out, was fairly straight forward. The familiar gained a boost to its intelligence... and the mage gained a... different... benefit. One dependent on the familiar in question, as apparently different familiars offered different things.
Henrietta the squirrel got smarter; though, since the only place he had to keep her at the moment was the warehouse, she hadn't had a chance to show it.
And Oliver got another new ability. One that, thankfully, didn't cost mana or psi.
Aspect of the Familiar: Take on the aspect of your familiar, gaining limited physical properties based on the Familiar chosen.
Familiar : Adrova Squirrel(Henrietta)
Benefits : Minor increase to Agility, climbing, balance, and hearing.
Physical manifestation : ears, prehensile tail, retractable claws.
“Not a fan of the pink tail and ears, even if they could be useful... But what guy never wanted claws as a kid?”
“At least Lita can still cover the ears and tail...”